Call to Support Jobs And End The Housing Crisis

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The Royal Institute of British Architects has called on the government to create or support 250,000 jobs and end the housing crisis by helping local authorities deliver the next generation of council housing across England.

In a new report, ‘Homes For All: Putting Council Housing At The Heart Of Local Recovery’, RIBA says urgent investment is needed in social housing. Following a detailed analysis of public sector and independent data, the Institute has concluded that not only would this provide high-quality, safe and sustainable homes for those in need, it would also generate a huge jobs boost across the country.

To read the report - Click Here

Crisis

With 1.15 million households on social housing waiting lists across England, the charity Crisis recently calculated that the government needs to build 90,000 new homes per year to meet demand. To deliver the new homes required, RIBA recommends:

• The Treasury removes borrowing and spending restrictions on local authorities and provides grant funding for new social housing to help lower long-term housing support costs.

• The Ministry of Housing, Community and Local Government provides local authorities with the freedom to set their own planning fees to ensure they can adequately invest in resourcing to cover development management responsibilities.

• Homes England explores solutions to meeting the capacity shortages within local government planning teams and places greater emphasis on quality design in funding programmes.

 “The UK has some of the worst housing in Europe. Too many people find themselves living in sub-standard, unhealthy housing that fails to meet their needs.”

– Alan Jones 

President, Royal Institute of British Architects

"There are over one million households on the waiting list for social housing in England alone, with many of these are currently living in poorly maintained, short-term and expensive privately rented homes," continues RIBA's Jones. "This is a stark illustration of the scale of our housing crisis. We urgently need a radical new approach to council housing that will deliver safe, low carbon, healthy homes and spaces around them.

"Housing that creates identity, pride and belonging, and helps to drive the recovery from the economic impact of Covid-19 by creating new jobs and boosting our economy."

Building Back Better

Jones adds: "With wide-ranging reforms to the planning system on the agenda, it is vital that government addresses the factors that have contributed to the failing system. If the government is serious about ‘Building Back Better’ it needs to back local authorities to invest in their communities and build homes fit for the future.”

Picture: Lenton and Radford are city regeneration projects in central Nottingham where 1960s high rise buildings are replaced by high quality homes for families and older people to rebalance the mix in neighbourhoods currently dominated by student housing.

Article written by Cathryn Ellis
12th November 2020

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